Stocks Wither on Corporate Profit Concerns
Blue chip companies lowered their earnings outlook and announced job cuts amid the ongoing economic turmoil. The Dow lost 68 points to 8865. However, tech stocks were resilient as Nasdaq rose 14 points to 1586.
On the upside
Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) lowered its 4th quarter revenue and earnings outlook. However, investors had already discounted the company's valuation due to recent order cutbacks from Nokia (NYSE: NOK), which is the chipmaker's largest customer.Aiming to cut costs, Sony (NYSE: SNE) announced plans to cut 8000 jobs worldwide or 4% of its work force.
EXCO Resources (NYSE: XCO) reported positive results from its wells in North Louisiana and East Texas.
On the downside
The Kroger Company (NYSE: KR) posted higher 3rd quarter revenues and slightly lower profits. The results missed expectations; the shortfall was blamed on Hurricane Ike which temporarily closed grocery stores in September.
Medical imaging device maker Analogic (Nasdaq: ALOG) blamed the weak economy for a drop in quarterly earnings that missed expectations.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin
of nearly 2 to 1 on the NYSE and by 5 to 4 on Nasdaq. The Russell
2000 which tracks small cap stocks lost 3 points to 478.
